Technology is a fruit of one's world view, and I think world history will bear out that as a society is just and free, technology skyrockets.
Where a society becomes unjust, atheistic and/or pagan, technology takes a dive.
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Technology is the product of scientific advancement, a problem that needs to be solved, and the resources available to solve said problem.
Worldview has nothing to do with it, save where a prevalent worldview impedes the development of scientific knowledge or the acknowledgement of problems to solve.
Religion at its worst can send technology into a nosedive, but so can too many hippies, if anti-vaccine hysteria is any indication. Really, any ideology taken to an extreme can prove harmful.
Where a society becomes unjust, atheistic and/or pagan, technology takes a dive.
The V1 rocket, Sputnik, and a number of other technological advances say something else.
@ SpukiKitty
Well certainly, but you can't deny there's just as strong an anti-science sentiment on the left as on the right, albeit for different reasons.
Nor are the hillbillies and rednecks that coastal city slickers like to stereotype all a bunch of half-witted yahoos.
I suppose if we were to sum it up in a nutshell, stereotypes are bad.
In a society ruled by profit, technology is usually channelled into profitable lines. What tends to get produced is what will make money in the market.
The pagan Romans had indoor plumbing and advanced roads. After the fall of the empire, Christendom forgot about those and other technological advancements. I would encourage you to re-think that paradigm of yours, but it doesn't look like you put much thought into it in the first place.
"Where a society becomes unjust, atheistic and/or pagan, technology takes a dive."
Then the modern West is plainly just and godly. So stop worrying already.
I'm sure the evidence will bear that out.
Oh, wait. No, it turns out that the most devoutly religious nations, particularly ones that identify themselves as actual theocracies, are the ones that are faring worst in terms of scientific progress.
...Which is why theocratic/authoritarian countries like former Iraq or Afghanistan had top-of-the-line weapons, while the secular United States basically had to go to the war with slings and stones.
...oh, wait, it was the other way around. Why was that?
Oddly, though, it is when society becomes more atheistic that it becomes more just and free, and technology skyrockets.
Ever heard of Werner von Braun?
Seriously, this guy sort-of has a point - technological progress does rely on freethinking and a certain amount of whimsy. The catch is, despotic expansionist regimes just love to have the best technology, either for weapons or for propagandist purposes, and are usually quite canny enough, and sufficiently unafraid of hypocrisy, to permit small, carefully contained pockets of freethinkers to exist in their otherwise strictly regimented society to build it for them, and often give these groups enormous budgets.
Technology is currently at its highest point in history. So is atheism. I call bullshit on your comment about atheism. However, I do agree with what you said about when society is free and just. However, that contradicts the following comment about atheism.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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